Book Discussion Day 6: I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek

Chapter 5 – The First Life: Natural Law or Divine Awe?

The Proof that Darwinism is nothing more than a secular religion masquerading as science

Atheists and Darwinists including Naturalists do not have a valid explanation for the presence of life on earth. Any life on earth. Scientific discovery, specifically the nature of DNA, proves that the simplest life form on earth is made of detailed instructions that would fill over 1,000 sets of encyclopedias.22 Their theory is that original life spontaneously came into existence from nonliving chemicals. There is no scientific evidence for this theory. None. In fact all the scientific evidence points to an intelligence that created and designed the instructions that tell DNA to cause life to occur. There is no forensic evidence to support the theory either. That’s the same type of evidence which the police use to investigate crime. Forensic investigation is based on the Principle of Uniformity.23 The chapter has a useful analogy to describe that principle. If natural activity causes something today, then that’s what happened in the past. If intelligent activity caused something in the past, then that’s what is happening today. For example, the faces of presidents on Mount Rushmore could not be made by natural wind erosion today. Therefore in the past when Mount Rushmore came to look the way it does, it was caused by an intelligent action. Similarly, the Grand Canyon was created by water erosion many years ago, just like water erosion creates canyons in the present day.

When confronted with the complexity of DNA and the impossibility of life being created by itself, the atheists and Darwinists admit that they are committed to their theory regardless of the evidence. Moreover, they will not question it since to do so would require them to consider a divine cause.

This is compounded by the fact that all experimental efforts to re-create life by scientists have failed. So intelligent scientists have been unable to do what Darwinists and atheists claim unintelligent chemicals can do by themselves. And if some scientist is ever able to do it, it would only prove that it could be done by intelligent action!

Here’s a tip. If life could have spontaneously created itself from nonliving things as atheists claim, then according to the principle of uniformity it should have been able to happen more than once since the earth began. But there is no evidence of it ever happening even once! Not today, not last week, not last year, not ever.

Science is a Slave to Philosophy

Science is built on philosophy. Bad philosophy results in bad science and good science requires good philosophy. Here are three reasons.24

Science cannot be done without philosophy

Philosophical assumptions can dramatically impact science

Science doesn’t really say anything-scientists do.

There are five reasons why the materialism of the Darwinist naturalists’ worldview is false.25

Materialism cannot explain how complex life exists from mindless nature creating it. The authors point out that its like saying the words on this page were not created by the mindless ink, but by the mind of the writer who held the pen.

Human thoughts and theories are not comprised of only materials. Thoughts, convictions and emotions are not completely materially based. Therefore materialism is false.

If we were nothing more than materials, then we’d be able to take all the materials of life – which are the same materials found in dirt – and make a living being.

If materialism is true, then everyone in all of human history who has ever had any kind of spiritual experience has been completely mistaken.

If materialism is true, then reason itself is impossible.

Let’s simplify this

If you could identify one paragraph that represents this lengthy and complex chapter, it would be this one on page 133

How do you find the right box top of the puzzle of life? Arriving at the right box top is not a matter of preference (you like atheism, I like theism). No, it’s a matter of objective fact. By using the self-evident first principles of logic and the correct principles of scientific investigation, we discovered in chapters 3 and 4 that this is a theistic universe. If this is a theistic universe, then materialism is false. If materialism is false, then the Darwinism promoters may not be interpreting the evidence correctly.

Chapter Summary

Here is a summary of some of the chapter’s main points.

Life isn’t made up of merely chemicals, it includes specified complexity which only comes from a mind. There are no known natural laws that create specified complexity. Science is a search for causes based on philosophy, and there are only two types of causes, intelligent and natural. Yet the Darwinists use a philosophy that rules out intelligent causes before they even look at the evidence. Spontaneous generation of life, which Darwinism requires to get the theory started, has never been observed. It is believed by faith. With such strong evidence against the Darwinian belief in naturalism/materialism, that belief has nothing but their faith in it to support it.26

Discussion point

In many public schools children are taught materialism, the idea that life occurred by chance from natural phenomenon. What are the consequences of teaching a theory that is not supported by any scientific evidence?

Remember the discussion on why we believe what we believe? This gets back to those four sources of belief. Sociological (parents, friends, society and culture), psychological, religious, and philosophical. Why do people believe that the science of evolution disagrees with intelligent design and creation? Is it because of sociological influence, what they’ve been told? Since there isn’t any philosophical or scientific proof to support materialism and a natural cause for either the creation of the universe or life on earth, why do some people believe these ideas?

22Geisler & Turek page 118 I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.

23Geisler & Turek page 118 I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.

24Geisler & Turek pages 127-128 I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.

25Geisler & Turek pages 126-127 I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.

26Geisler & Turek pages 134-135 I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist.